People

"People" presents biographical sketches of Xiakou villagers and
related individuals who are subjects or informants in the ethnography,
as well as some historical figures (including gods) and contemporary
actors who have influenced the village and broader Ya'an region. While
there are references in the database to major national figures, the
focus here is not on Mao Zedong or Jiang Jieshi, but rather on local
people who constitute the cast of characters for the story we tell.

People entries in the database are comprised of descriptions of
significant figures, with links to places, features, media objects
(such as photographs and recordings), and texts (such as interview
transcripts or documents) related to that particular person. In
addition to an alphabetical index of names, a kinship diagram and a
village map connecting individuals to households can be accessed
through the People tool page, below.

Our aim in creating a People mode of access to the ethnography is to
explore how biography contributes to our understanding of village life
in China, particularly since rural people are often lumped together as
statistics rather than treated as individuals. To that end, the
materials gathered here aim at creating portraits of people and
relationships within the village. Readers can focus on an individual
and see how one person is related to the overall story and to the
particular evidence from which that story is crafted. The section on
kinship is a diagram illustrating the kin relations that connect and
divide the characters portrayed. The quality and character of these
relationships are examined as both the product of and condition for the
particular way historical forces have unfolded in this place.